You’re paying $90k for mud

Taxpayers will foot the almost $100,000 bill to bring mud from Korea to Rotorua for a mud-meetsmusic festival.

The bill, $90,000 in total, will see five tonnes of South Korean mud powder imported to Rotorua for five new Mudtopia festivals – the first of which will be held in December. It’s not ordinary mud, however. At a meeting of Rotorua Lakes Council yesterday, chief executive office manager Craig Tiriana said ‘‘the difference between their mud and ours is ours is geothermal and theirs is more cooling’’.

Rotorua Museum arts and culture director Stewart Brown also wanted to reassure a number of councillors that the bill for the mud move wasn’t being footed by Rotorua ratepayers, but rather taxpayers. ‘‘The funding is coming from $1.3 million supplied by central government. There is no funding from ratepayers,’’ he said.

However, Tiriana clarified in the wake of the meeting that Brown’s comment about no ratepayer funding wasn’t quite correct. Yes, the Government had put in $1.3 million, but the council had also put in $1 million. The $90k for the mud powder was coming from that combined pool of money.

However, Tiriana said that he expected that the $1m in costs footed by council should be made back through ticket sales and would result in no ratepayer hit.

The mud agreement was reached between Rotorua Lakes Council and the mayor of Boryeong in South Korea, home of Korea’s mud festival and the template for the Rotorua version.

Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick and councillor Trevor Maxwell had just returned from Korea and described the Boryeong festival as an event that needed to be seen to be believed. ‘‘We’ll do ours the Rotorua way,’’ said Chadwick.

She also said the agreement ‘‘opens up the opportunity for more export products to Korea’’.

Rotorua’s Mudtopia Festival is set to be held at Rotorua Racecourse from December 1-3, and will include a lineup of Kiwi musicians, including Shapeshifter and Anika Moa, plus a range of mud-based activities.

Unsurprisingly, news of the Government spending has been met with criticism, with Taxpayers’ Union researcher Matthew Rhodes saying: ‘‘How MBIE [the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment] and Rotorua Lakes Council think spending $90,000 on importing mud from overseas is a good idea is beyond imagination.

‘‘It’s like Dubai importing sand for a Desert festival.’’